By now everyone knows about the collapse in Chinese iron ore consumption, electricity production and luxury good demand (see Burberry [6]), as well as the record copper stockpiling, all of which point to the arrival of the long-deferred Chinese hard landing. Rumors, subsequential denials notwithstanding [7], that Chinese Hu Jintao successor Xi Jinping may or may not be missing, are not helping. Below we present yet another data point which had, for the longest time managed to diverge from the underlying Chinese economic reality, only for it too now to recouple with gravity with a bang: Chinese crude imports. Coming in at 18.4 million barrels, this was a 16% plunge from July's total imported energy needs, and is the lowest print since mid-2010 swoon, first crossed to the upside back in early 2009. Which likely is where the general Chinese economy is as well, at least in terms of actual demand. Only this time instead of going from the lower left to the upper right, to quote Dennis Gartman, it is doing the inverse.
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